# {{note|Davies}} "One of my earliest memories, I was four or so, living near Curragh and heard the gunfire of cavalry men on manoevres around the house in the woods." - from an interview with Hugh M. Davies, 3 April 1973. # {{note|Blackwood}} 'I was told by a homosexual friend of Francis's that he'd once admitted that his father, the dreaded and failed horse trainer, had arranged that his small son spend his childhood being systematically and viciously horsewhipped by his Irish grooms.' - Caroline Blackwood in ''Francis Bacon (1909–1992)'' for The New York Review of Books Volume 39, Number 15 · September 24 1992. # {{note|Ianthe}}"I'm not sure Francis had a lot in common with my mother because, she didn't take much notice of his art or anything. I remember sometimes he brought home things that he'd drawn and, I don't know what my mother did with them she wasn't wildly interested in it. They were always, what we used to call 1920s ladies you know, with the cloche hat and, cigarette holder [''gestures long holder'']. That sort of thing. They were always drawings like that. They were very nice. What happened to them I don't know. - And, funnily enough I actually remember them."   - Ianthe Knott (née Bacon) interviewed for ''Bacon's Arena'' dir. Adam Low (Arena (television) BBC Arena), broadcast 19 March 2005, at 9pm on BBC2. # {{note|Peppiatt}}'I remember once, when I was absolutely broke, I got myself picked up by a man in Dover Street. He was Greek but he'd been living in London for a long time. And he was obviously a rich man. Well, after we had been in his bedroom, he went out into the bathroom. And I started going through his pockets. He must have been watching me in the mirror, because suddenly he came out and said, "What are you doing Francis?" and I said, "Well you know what I'm doing." Then he said, "You don't have to do that. Just ask." And he took me down to a bank and drew out one hundred pounds, which was a very large sum then, and gave it to me. It was a marvellous way to behave, and I've never forgotten it.' - quoted in Peppiat p.24. # {{note|Berlin}}"I went to Berlin. I wasn't in Berlin very long, but I did see Berlin about 1927 - 28, which was, one of the, what is called, the great decadent years, they say, of Berlin. And I went with a, somebody, who had picked me up, whatever you like to say, and we went and stayed at the :de:Hotel Adlon Hotel Adlon, which is the most wonderful hotel, because I always remember, the wheeling the breakfast in in the morning, with these wonderful trollies with enormous swans necks coming out of the four corners. And then, the night life of Berlin at that time, to go down the Kurfürstendamm and that kind of thing was really very exciting in those times because I had never seen anything from coming from a very puritanical country, in a way, like Ireland, going to a city which at that time was wide open, was very exciting for me." - from an interview with David Sylvester (March 1984) in ''Francis Bacon: The Brutality of Fact'' dir. Michael Blackwood, for the BBC, broadcast 16 November 1984 (used in interview 9, ''Interviews with Francis Bacon'' David Sylvester). # {{note|Peppiatt2}}'The replies used to pour in, and my old nanny used to go through them all and pick out the best ones. I must say she was ''always'' right. There was one time I found myself being taken back to Paris by this dreadful old thing who took a very expensive flat just off the Champs-Élysées, on the rue 1er de Serbie. I didn't stay with ''him'' long, as you might imagine! But what was amazing was how easily you were able to pick up people in that way.' - quoted in Peppiatt p.55. # {{note|Sylvester}}"Another thing that made me think about the human cry was a book I bought when I was very young from a bookshop in Paris, a second-hand book with beautiful hand-coloured plates of diseases of the mouth, beautiful plates of the mouth open and of the examination of the inside of the mouth; and they fascinated me, and I was obsessed by them. And then I saw - or perhaps I even knew by then - the ''Potemkin'' film, and I attempted to use the ''Potemkin'' still as a basis on which I could also use these marvellous illustrations of the human mouth. It never worked out though." - from interview 2, (May 1966) (''Interviews with Francis Bacon'' David Sylvester) # {{note|Archimbaud}}"La distinction aujourd'hui classique entre conscient et inconscient est très féconde, me semble-t-il. Elle ne recouvre pas tout à fait ce à quoi je pense par rapport à la peinture, mais elle a l'avantage de ne pas recourir à une explication métaphysique pour parler de ce qui échappe à la compréhension logique des choses. L'inconnu n'est pas renvoyé du côté de la mystique ou de quelque chose comme ça. Et c'est très important pour moi, parce que j'ai horreur de toute explication de cet ordre." ("The classic distinction today between the conscious and the unconscious is a useful one I think. It doesn't quite cover what I think about painting, but it has the advantage of not having to resort to a metaphysical explanation to talk about what cannot be explained in rational terms. The unknown is not relegated to the realm of the mystical or something similar. And that's very important to me because I loathe all explanations of that sort.") – Francis Bacon Entretiens avec Michel Archimbaud, 1992 (Francis Bacon in conversation with Michel Archimbaud) # {{note|Sylvester1}}DS:Have you managed to paint any pictures in which you did go on and on and the paint got thick and you still pulled them through? || FB:I have, yes. There was an early one of a head against curtains. It was a small picture, and very, very thick. I worked on that for about four months, and in some curious way it did, I think, perhaps, come through a bit.